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Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Stone Bearing Blocks For The Bow Drill

While we were down on the beach the other day i made sure to look out for some pebbles that i could use for bearing block on the bow drill, some trips you find loads, on other trips you find none at all, this trip however leaned towards the latter and i only collected two suitable pebbles.

The two i collected are pictured left, both of these are wonderful to hold and fall naturally to the exactly the right grip needed for a bearing block, the light one of the two is lovely as the top is nice and rounded and the underside is as flat as a pancake. Now sometimes you get really lucky and find a pebble that has an inclusion or hole that allows the tip of the spindle to sit in it with little or no work needed to bring them to a finished article, these two are not of that variety though, you can see on the darker one that i have marked out the position for the small depression to be ground out, when it's done though and the inside of the depression has been polished slightly, these really are almost frictionless and if you are prepared to put the effort in, quite simply one of the best natural bearing blocks going.